Poor Bert Blyleven.He pitched for some of the worst teams in baseball for many years,excluding the lightning in a bottle 1979 Pirates,retires third ALL TIME in K’s and can’t get a sniff of respect from the voters.Yes he gave up a lot of gopher balls,but Robin Roberts gave up the most and you can see his plaque in Cooperstown.

Rickey is in but I did not think he would be elgible this year.I thought he was still playing independent ball 2 years ago.

Games: 13
W/L: 7-4
ERA: 3.80
CG: 5
IP: 92.1
H: 83
BB: 32
K: 64

Those look like good, solid numbers to me. But they don’t fit the clutch god label. His reputation seems to be built on two excellent World Series (’84 and ‘91) that actually happened and actually had a huge benefit to his teams.

And if you’re going to give him credit for that and his other fine performances, you also have to dock him for the stinker in the ‘87 ALCS (8 IP, 6 ER), the stinker in the ‘92 ALCS (3.1 IP, 5 ER), the stinker in the ‘92 World Series (4.2 IP, 7 ER).

On balance, he’s better than average and capable of some gems. But he’s clearly not consistently great in the postseason.

Oh yeah, Rickey, Raines, Blyleven.

You mean Dennis Martinez plus 3 World Series? Morris had great numbers throughout his career and was clutch as hell. To equate Schilling and class is unfair to class. But imo, they are similar pitchers and both Hall of Famers.

This year, I’d vote for:

Morris
Rickey(duh)
David Cone(Cy Young, many great seasons of 15+ wins, clutch, multiple World Series winner, perfect game).

That’s it for this year. Voting for more than 3 seems like a bit much. I think Dawson should get some more votes, he was great, my runnerup this year.

The pitcher I think is highly overlooked is Jack Morris. I almost feel like people discount or even “punish” him for being a great world series pitcher. When I was young this was the best pitcher in the American League. What pitcher after Fergie Jenkins and before Greg Maddux is better (not counting guys who overlap like Seaver or Randy Johnson). Fernando? no… Clemens (first couple years over lap)? Sterroids second half of his career. Mike Scott? He had three or four outstanding years with his spitter er um .. splitter.. that’s it. Nolan Ryan? Seriously, Nolan struck out a lot of people and threw some great no hitters, but what else would you do. When I think of Nolan I still think of a 450 home run Randy Veladre hit off him on a day he struck out 10 and gave up 6+ runs.

3 players… Manny Ramirez, Frank Thomas and Albert Belle… who gets in? Basically all three were big, lumbering right-handed hitters. All in some ways were clubhouse “problems” (Thomas to a lesser extent). I would bet two get in (Manny early, Frank later)… but look at the numbers…

Daz it. He better get in.

he is a pornography freak. My BoSox employee friend had to get rid of all his adult movies when he got married and Rice was chomping at the bit to take them off his hands. He has quite the collection I’m sure.

I’d vote him in on that fact alone

Rice is debatable, and his low away numbers and OPS+ really kill his eligibility for me. There are guys who swing for the fences, and there are guys who swing for the fences and belong in the HOF. Rice belongs in the former group. He was not a dominant hitter in his own time outside of a three year span (with his MVP year in the middle). It seems that the only reason he gets within sniffing distance of the Hall is because of the “feared” mystique that’s built up around him. That’s never a good reason to induct a player because it’s often based on BS.

Raines, on the other hand is the second-greatest lead-off man of all time and one of the best players ever. Career .385 OBP and an OPS+ of 123, only 5 lower than Rice! Why doesn’t this man get some serious consideration? He should be a no-brainer first ballot. Plus, it would be awesome if Rickey and Raines were inducted together.